Acts 2:14a, 22-32     Psalm 16      1 Peter 1:3-9     John 20:19-31     

Texts

It was impossible for Jesus to be held in death’s power.

Peter stands with the eleven. The Spirit has fallen on the church and Peter with renewed insight, having spent time with the risen Lord and witnessing the ascension of Christ into heaven, declares the truth he now knows and understands.

He now knows that all they have experienced, the life of Jesus their teacher and healer, his coming back to life and ascension to the Right Hand of God the Father are part of God’s definite plan and foreknowledge. He is speaking to the people of Jerusalem, the people of God’s promise, called to bless the nations.

…listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having released him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

This man suffered the agonies of death. Why is death an agony and why is it impossible for Jesus to be held in its power?

According to the scriptures, given for the blessing of the nations, David wrote in Psalm 16 of a promise. Peter reframes and interprets the Psalm to tell us who Jesus is.

Jesus is the Messiah:

Since [David] was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’ “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. 

Jesus the Messiah, Christ, was released from the agonies of death.

Later Peter writes in his letter of each of us receive new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus. In life we suffer now but the faithfulness of God is that in uniting to and loving Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, we have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, which gives us indescribable joy in the face of our trials. And the joy comes because we are receiving the salvation of our souls.

David sang

You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy;

Peter says David saw it as a prophecy; a mystery to be revealed. We see it through the revelation of witnesses to the mystery Peter trusted had been fulfilled.

We are called to go beyond the faith of Thomas. Thomas was right to doubt. And so are we. Thomas waited 8 days to encounter the risen Jesus and we too must wait to encounter Christ in our hearts; ascent to the message is not enough.

We can’t go on the words and experience of others. We have the testimonies of scripture and the breath of God, the Holy Spirit. United in love to the word planted in our hearts we encounter Christ and we have life in his name. When doubts assail us, we cry, My Lord and my God! And we know it’s true because it sets us free and gives us peace. We are immersed in  the birth of resurrection life, washed by the word made alive.

Each one of us needs a personal revelation of this truth, to have our eyes open to the presence of Jesus, abiding in him as he abides in us. Each of us knows God, each of us is met by God as we seek refuge in God. No one is left out. Whenever we find peace, whenever stillness invades our being, God opens up a way for us to be transformed into his likeness. In hearing the scriptures a  mystery is opened to us, becoming the word of God in us, that washes away our sin and defeats death.

The agony of death is choosing to turn our back on God. All humanity has succumbed to this, rejecting the life that is in God. This is the sin that brings death. Death is turning away from God and we are corrupted by it and the pangs of loss cause us to weep and grind our teeth. This is the meaning of being in Adam.

The futility is overwhelming, we rail against sin, the sin that separates us from life. This is experienced by Jesus and made present in the agonies of his crucifixion where he bears the sin that brings death; his death. Fully human he dies, but fully God, death could not hold him and on the third day he rose from death and death is dissolved as he bears its pangs for three days, untouched by it, death is defeated. Jesus is the new Adam.

The mission of the people of Israel was to bless the nations and David as a prophet king, declares truth in the Psalm. The scriptures are a universal mediated through the people of God. The declaration of the Psalm is for everyone. For all whose hearts are turned to God they can cry with the psalm:

Bless the Lord, Creator, the great I am. He is the light that guides me in goodness, truth and life. Even as I sleep my heart forms and transforms me to be like him. As I am able, in the opening up of my humanity, I know his constant presence guiding me and keeping me in the ways that bring life, setting my hand to do good. In this I am secure. It’s in this generous gift of grace, a seed that falls in good soil, I grow. In this I find that death is not the end.

The good news is that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus to the Right Hand of God the Father, is the table at which we feast. This is the revelation that brings joy, that heals us for evermore; Jesus Christ is the Lord.

For you do not give me up to Sheol or let your faithful one see the Pit. 

You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Picture: LeCompte, Rowan and Irene LeCompte. Christ shows himself to Thomas, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54879 [retrieved April 12, 2026]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maryannsolari/5119341372/.